Bill Pearl is one of my favorite old-school bodybuilders who doesn't get nearly enough praise for his accomplishment.

In 1971, he mopped up the floor with three-time Mr. Olympia, Sergio Oliva, along with Dave Draper, Frank Zane, and several other IFBB legends, to win the NABBA Universe.

I remember using his "20 Months to a Champion's Physique" articles in IronMan magazine. That was great stuff. "Train; don't strain", similar to Haney's "Stimulate; don't annihilate" mantra. That's when I stopped training to failure, which helped me recover from my workouts.

you should go, how often do you get to meet an all-time legend, and if you do go take a camera and get some good pics.

would have loved to have met him. Was a while back abour 2005. spoke about Training of course but other things too. He told me he was in the Navy and his wife Judy spoke to me too also a very nice woman. I asked about some of the old School strength feats he did and he laughed and said , it was a Long time ago. very polite and came over like a down to earth guy. one Thing i noticed was he is very quick thinking.. intelligent.

Option D.......There still a gym on Manchester that use to be where Pearl's original gym was......wow. What's there now, one of those chain gyms?

Heard Pearl moved out after the Watt's riots..around 65 or 66. Settle in Pasadena off of Colorado Blvd. Only hear good stories about Pearl...his brother was another story all together.

South Central and Watt's used to have some pretty big and bad lifters back in the day....probably still true.

Nope that gym is still there but its a hardcore gym like metro flex or something. I went yesterday and did chest and tris.. I love that gym. Yeah there are some big dudes in there. And i swear the weight in there is heavier than the weight at 24 hour fitness. I wish i could see it back in its hay day.. i bet it was awesome.

think i posted this before but what the hell...great Guy..Great sense of Humor...The Pearl of the Universe. intresting is the comments about 1 muscle group a day training saying every 72 Hrs you lose 5% strength. I spoke to him about this on the phone in 2005 and he said you can never really isolate a muscle(overlap factorregarding a 5 Day split). Also it is in Getting stronger showing a 5 Day split. A 5 Day split does work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMiRFNUZl5M

It seems Weider didn't promote Bill Pearl that much. I can only speculate the reason. Maybe Weider didn't make it out his gym too often for photos. His biography "Beyond the Universe" was one of the most interesting books I have ever read on bodybuilding. He has lived an incredible life. It's also interesting his involvement with Arthur Jones. He's one of the few that stood up to that bully. He also writes how he told Arthur to put weight stacks on the Nautilus machine and how Arthur listened. If my memory serves me right Arthur once threatened Pearl with his gun and Pearl said in effect if you try anything I'll shove the gun up your ass. I have to read that book again. He's one of the few to get wealthy from bodybuilding back when there was no money from supplement sponsors.

It seems Weider didn't promote Bill Pearl that much. I can only speculate the reason. Maybe Weider didn't make it out his gym too often for photos. His biography "Beyond the Universe" was one of the most interesting books I have ever read on bodybuilding. He has lived an incredible life. It's also interesting his involvement with Arthur Jones. He's one of the few that stood up to that bully. He also writes how he told Arthur to put weight stacks on the Nautilus machine and how Arthur listened. If my memory serves me right Arthur once threatened Pearl with his gun and Pearl said in effect if you try anything I'll shove the gun up your ass. I have to read that book again. He's one of the few to get wealthy from bodybuilding back when there was no money from supplement sponsors.

Pearl is a Mans Man. I could believe Bill Pearl put him in his place. Bill Pearl also said the Internet really helped his business intrests.